All the talk prior to kick off concerned one word – PLASTIC – and for the first time in over two weeks it wasn’t Jordan of the Jungle’s breasts, rather the playing surface of Dunfermline’s East End Park.

The last visit to the ground in August 2003 had seen the kick-off to season 2003-2004, a grass pitch, two dropped points, and a sense of disappointment at trailing Rangers. How things have changed, a new plastic playing surface, no dropped SPL points since then, and an 11 point lead over Rangers – it’s early February by the way! Recent talk has also seen speculation mount as to the future of Big Eck at the Rangers helm, with Captain Mannering having apparently been approached to take over with the arrival of Frank DeBoer (did I also mention that me missed a crucial penalty in the CIS Cup semi-final defeat to Hibernian?).

Anyway back to the game, Celtic took to the field in a 4-4-2 formation, with John Kennedy keeping his place whilst Bobo recovers from his exploits with Guinea in the African Nations Cup. The midfield saw Pearson and Lennon in the central positions, whilst Alana Thompson and Stacey Petrov donned Lily Savage’s cast-off tights, whilst up front Sutton (complete with skateboarder’s knee pads) partnered the King.

The game started well for Dunfermline with their Irish striker Noel Hunt causing the defence a few problems. With a quarter of an hour gone, Celtic had failed to settle and Kennedy had to go off for 5 stitches in an eye-wound. Before his return Dunfermline had scored, with Hunt heading past the despairing Douglas to turn the game on its head – I say head because shortly afterwards Celtic won a corner on the right and an excellent delivery by Thompson was firmly hammered into the net by Henrik to level matters. Another headed goal followed again from an excellent cross by Thompson, this time from a free-kick, with big Varga bulleting number two in, and giving Celtic the lead, 2-1 Celtic. On the stroke of half-time it was 3-1 Celtic, with a case of deja-vu, corner kick on the right, Thompson’s left foot, Henrik’s head, and a struggling Dunfermline defence.

The second half saw less goalmouth action than the first, but Thompson again delivered, with that golden left foot curling a freekick into the corner of the net (with a very slight aid of a deflection!). Valageren, Maloney, and Lambert (complete with neckbrace) all got the opportunity of a run out, however, there were no more goals and the game finished 4-1 to the Celts.

Maybe Celtic scored all those headers because Dunfermline were ‘lying down’ – who said that? Was that you Sutton? 

BSCSC Man of the Match – Alan Thompson (1 goal, 3 assists)